(Photo grabbed from web)
CLARK FREEPORT — The National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan) and the rice watch group Bantay Bigas called yesterday for the repeal of the Rice Liberalization Law, saypurpose of lowering rice price and adversely affecting the local rice industry.
The two groups urged lawmakers to go out and check the price of rice in the market and meet with the affected farmers to realize the adverse effects of the law they passed as Republic Act No.11203.
“The damage of the law on farmers is huge. The finest palay that used to sell for P23 per kilo is now being bought at P8 per kilo,” noted Ignacio Ortiz, chairman of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson-Nueva Ecija (AMGLNE).
Bantay Bigas pointed out, however, that ironically, the retail price of rice has not gone down. The group reported that “rice retail prices remained unaffordable for poor consumers with NFA rice almost unavailable to markets which forces consumers to buy more expensive commercial rice priced at P36 to P50 per kilo.”
Meanwhile, Amihan national chair Zenaida Soriano slammed Sen. Cynthia Villar’s dismissing reports that palay prices have dropped to as low as P7 per kilo.
“Our monitoring done with Bantay Bigas has confi rmed palay costing P7 per kilo in Zaragoza and Licab in Nueva Ecija and San Jose in Tarlac, P7.50 per kilo in Nueva Vizcaya, P8 per kilo in Pagsanjan in Laguna, Candaba in Pampanga and San Miguel in Bulacan; P10-12 per kilo in Naic in Cavite, Cagayan region and, Capas in Tarlac, and in the towns of Arayat, Sta. Ana, Magalang, Mexico and San Luis in Pampanga,” Soriano said.
Soriano urged the lawmakers to “go out of their offices and interact with farmers and pass laws that will genuinely serve the interests of farmers.”
Amihan and Bantay Bigas said that the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) under the Rice Liberalization Law “is barely enough to support the needs of rice farmers.”
“A mere 10 percent or P1 billion will be directly accessed by farmers in the form of credit under RCEF which will not address the problem of low palay prices which push farmers into indebtedness because of the high cost of production,” Soriano said.
Soriano also noted that “the government mechanization program is limited to a few groups of farmers while it is usually inaccessible for landless and small-scale farmers.”
“Mechanization without the farmers’ control over the equipment becomes a burden as farmers still need to pay for the rent while farm workers are displaced from their source of livelihood,” she also said.
Soriano also expressed fears that “RCEF will also be prone to corruption similar to ACEF (Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund) and other funds supposedly for the benefit of farmers.”
The groups, in a joint statement, also said “the proposed conditional and unconditional cash transfer are just bandaid solutions and an admission of the failure of RA 11203 to alleviate the conditions of rice farmers.”
“Farmers’ bankruptcy forces some to stop palay production while some are forced to sell their lands. Kapag nagpatuloy ito, hindi malayo na mawalan ng lupa ang marami pang magsasaka lalo pa at sinasamantala ng mga ahente at developer katulad ng pamilya Villar ang pagkakataon para mamili ng lupa para sa kanilang mga negosyo,” Soriano said.
The groups added that “as a rice producing country, the Philippines should not depend on the limited supply in the world market which is dangerous once a supply shortage or a crisis occur.”
Former Anakpawis Partylist representative and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairman emeritus Rafael Mariano said that “the only solution to ensure the country’s food security and self-sufficiency as well as the livelihood of farmers and workers in the rice industry, is to enact a genuine agrarian reform program and develop the local rice industry founded on free land distribution and provision of support services and subsidies including farm inputs, irrigation, appropriate farm equipment and post-harvest facilities.”
He added, “The National Food Authority should be strengthened and maintain its mandate to stabilize the supply and prices of rice through greater palay procurement at reasonable price and end the one-sided agreement with World Trade Organization-Agreement on Agriculture (WTO-AoA) which was clearly the reason behind the enactment of Rice Liberalization Law.”
The groups reiterated their support for the enactment of HB 476 repealing the RA 11203, HB 239 Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) and the HB 477 Rice Industry Development Act (RIDA) filed by the Makabayan bloc.
